iTunes 10 adds “Ping” social network, TV rentals, AirPlay

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new social network for iTunes users called " …

During Apple's annual music event Wednesday, CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the 10th major version of its iTunes media management software. Since the program now handles music, video, books, iOS apps, and more, Apple has finally revised the logo to eliminate the CD. With a slightly revised UI, the main new features include compatibility with HD TV rentals, the new AirPlay feature, and a new music-focused social network called "Ping."

Jobs noted that one of the most important features of iTunes and the iTunes Store is discovery—that is, enabling users to discover new music from artists they might not already know. Ping is designed to add discovery features directly into iTunes.

Jobs described Ping as "sort of like Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes." You can follow your favorite artists to keep up with tour schedules and new album or song releases. You can also follow your friends to see what music they are listening to and downloading, or even what concerts they are going to. Ping will also track your top ten songs and albums and let you see the charts of your friends.

You can post updates to your Ping account, which your followers can comment on. You can also comment on posts and images that your favorite artists share as well. Jobs noted that there are fine-grained privacy controls that allow you to control what gets shared, and he described the settings as "super simple to set up." The $64 question is whether iTunes users have the energy and desire to stay on top of yet another social network. At least Apple won't have trademark worries—Karsten Manufacturing Corporation, better known as the maker of Ping golf clubs, has reached a trademark agreement with Apple over the use of the name.

In addition to the social networking features, iTunes 10 is compatible with new HD TV show rentals, which cost 99¢. Shows are available from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel, and BBC America, though Jobs expects that "the rest of the studios will see the light and get on board pretty fast." (The TV rentals are also compatible with a new Apple TV announced as well.)

iTunes 10 also has an updated AirTunes feature, now called "AirPlay." The name change is a result of Apple adding video and photo "streaming" to the mix. In addition to streaming music to an Airport Express, you can now stream music directly to remote speakers from the likes of Bowers & Wilkins, JBL, Denon, and iHome. iTunes also facilitates streaming of video content as well as iPhoto albums to other devices, including Macs, iPads, iPhones, iPod touches, and Apple TVs.

Jobs called iTunes 10 "even further refined," though he didn't discuss any sort of performance or architectural improvements. The only obvious UI change is that the close, minimize, and maximize buttons are arranged in an HIG-busting vertical orientation—a dubious refinement. While the social networking capabilities, TV show rentals, and improved AirPlay are appreciated, more users would have been satisfied with under-the-hood changes. (We'll be sure to let you know if we notice any performance improvements once we get to spend some quality time with the new version.)

As mentioned in the (somments on the) other story: it's a trademark, not a copyright. Big difference, and you should educate yourself before spouting off. Second, different companies can use the same trademarked names if they operate in different spheres (and thus there is little to no chance of consumer confusion). Since golf clubs and social networking are about as far apart as you can hope to get, no problem there. Third, supposedly (according to a press release from Ping) the golf club manufacturer has already entered an agreement with Apple, so even though there was no real risk anyway they decided to cover their bases.

Yes, they have run into issues in the past...but those were companies in the tech sphere (as with iPhone). They also had an issue with Apple Records when they launched the iTMS, which they worked out. But golf clubs? Let's not be silly.

Can't wait to see what Karsten Manufacturing Corporation aka "PING" copyright holder has to say about Apple once again using a copyrighted name for one of their products. FYI: Ping Golf

Trademark names are registered by particular industry.

Needless to say, although social networking is getting out of hand, people LOVE to talk about music and follow their bands. I think this will be pretty big and an easy way for iTS to increase sales. Not to mention, people will obviously not talk about just music, so every iOS device now has a built-in social network and way to contact friends.

With fast user switching on Windows, you have to kill iTunes running in another user's account before you can start it up in another one. Absolutely retarded software design.

My wife has her own music library, and I have my own in different user directories in Windows 7. We both run iTunes to sync to different devices. If she left it running when I switched to my account, I can't run it til I bring up task manager and kill it on her account.

iTunes also doesn't work right with RDP.

Their UI hangs often. Clicks aren't registered right away. It is even worse when you are downloading something or syncing. Even on my 3.0GHz quad core.

I don't care about yet another social network. I just want them to fix their current implementation.

Can't wait to see what Karsten Manufacturing Corporation aka "PING" copyright holder has to say about Apple once again using a copyrighted name for one of their products. FYI: Ping Golf

It was already explained to you by Hanser that it would be a trademark issue, not copyright, the first time you brought this up. Also, trademarks are only enforceable within an industry where it's reasonable to believe that the possibility for consumer confusion could occur.

As long as Apple stays out of sporting goods manufacture, there's no conflict.

My favorite part of this announcement was how much apple is bending to the media companies. I'm surprised more people aren't up in arms over this backwards-progress DRM revival with these 30/48 rentals. It's appalling.

I think finding and sharing music favorites is a good thing, but Facebook style? Eww. Especially if they're going to be links to 30 second samples, which was suggested by the update, but isn't clear. I'd rather use MySpace.

My favorite part of this announcement was how much apple is bending to the media companies. I'm surprised more people aren't up in arms over this backwards-progress DRM revival with these 30/48 rentals. It's appalling.

How are you going to implement "rentals" in a downloadable format without DRM? Have the customer pinkie-swear to delete it?

Can't wait to see what Karsten Manufacturing Corporation aka "PING" copyright holder has to say about Apple once again using a copyrighted name for one of their products. FYI: Ping Golf

It was already explained to you by Hanser that it would be a trademark issue, not copyright, the first time you brought this up. Also, trademarks are only enforceable within an industry where it's reasonable to believe that the possibility for consumer confusion could occur.

As long as Apple stays out of sporting goods manufacture, there's no conflict.

I know very little about IP laws, but knowing the basics of how patent, copyright, and trademarks differ and what each are really helps. The specific words matter, and using one when the other applies, while thinking the restrictions of one applies instead of the correct one makes a person look silly. There should be a basic IP article that's required reading. A lecture in a college CS course was plenty, and it spent just 20 minutes on it, maybe.

Anyway, thank you to you and others that agree that words' meanings are important.

Like many others I'm also wondering about the sideways traffic light like buttons in iTunes 10. Again Apple starts to experiment with the UI in iTunes. I see the benefit (smaller toolbar), but it totally breaks the User Interface Guidelines ...

99¢ each to buy a TV show isn't bad. 99¢ to rent a TV show is outrageous.

Well, most shows come out at $49.99 to purchase, which runs anywhere from $2 or so (20+ episode broadcast season) to $4 or so (<15 episode cable season). At which point $1 per episode to watch in HD (compared to DVD, where those prices came from) is...high, but not absurd.

And for the number of shows we watch...it's at least a little cheaper than cable. But not much. If I could find a way to easily record on a TV capture card in Windows and import into iTunes (presumably I can then play it from my library on the ATV, no?) then it can get quite a bit cheaper.

EDIT: Also note that paying DVD prices means waiting until DVD release, not watching as it comes out.

My major gripes with iTunes is the metadata handling. My books don't have an album artist, etc, they have authors etc. This is all due to the expansion away from just music. There should be unique categories for metadata with each type of file, rather than just shoehorning ID3 onto every supported media type.

My favorite part of this announcement was how much apple is bending to the media companies. I'm surprised more people aren't up in arms over this backwards-progress DRM revival with these 30/48 rentals. It's appalling.

How are you going to implement "rentals" in a downloadable format without DRM? Have the customer pinkie-swear to delete it?

That's kind of the situation now with regular DVD rentals. Tools to copy those have been cheap and plentiful for more than a decade. Yet people continue to rent (and even buy) DVDs. Nothing is keeping every Netflix, Redbox, and Blockbuster customer from keeping everything they ever rented.